For many decades, the positions of keys on a typewriter keyboard has been standardized. This standardization has been incorporated into the design of keyboards for interaction with computers, with computers becoming ever more important in our society.
The most widely accepted method for efficient keyboard input is the touch typing procedure. In this procedure, the typist places the fingers on the correct home keys across the width of the keyboard, which read "ASDFJKL;" from left to right. The thumbs are placed over the space bar. Each finger rests lightly on its home key and does not move unless it reaches to strike keys immediately above or below the home key or, in the case of each of the index fingers, the additional four keys immediately to the side of the home key, the finger quickly returns to its home key. Thus, each finger has only certain keys that it should strike.
To keyboard correctly, the typist must use the touch typing procedure described above. There is no middle ground in proper typing. If the typist is not typing correctly, he is typing incorrectly.
Keyboarding has a been a skill taught at the high school level heretofore. Many suitable teaching systems exist for students of that level. However, the explosive growth in the use of computers has reached as far down as elementary school and students as young as kindergarteners are now using a computer keyboard to work various computer programs. Even if a program requires the striking of only one or two keys in the keyboard, the students are striking keys with the wrong fingers and using other incorrect keyboarding techniques. Typing teachers agree that students who form incorrect keyboarding techniques are extremely difficult to retrain. It is much more difficult to teach a student who has ingrained, incorrect habits of keyboarding than to teach a student who has never used the keyboard. Breaking incorrect habits is frustrating and next to impossible in many cases.
Students in elementary school now have to cope with the keyboard. Keys are not in alphabetical order and even locating a key many times is difficult, to said nothing of attempting to strike keys with the correct finger. Frankly, the keyboard is an overwhelming mystery to these students. Moreover, the poor habits that they learn at this age will significantly hamper their ability to learn correct typing procedure.
One attempt to provide a keyboard teaching system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,501,849 issued on Mar. 24, 1970 to Mildred Olsen. The main purpose of Olsen's disclosure was to instruct handicapped children in language art skills, with any touch typing training basically a byproduct. The Olsen patent requires the use of eight colored adjustable finger bands color-coded to match colored decals on the keys. However, the Olsen patent does not provide guidance for the learner to correctly place the fingers on the home keys. Finger band color and key color can be matched in numerous incorrect placements of fingers on the keybord in the Olsen patent. Incorrect initial placement of fingers totally negates the touch typing system. The use of eight adjustable bands by young children in a classroom environment is also not very practical. With eight bands, these students are quite likely to place the bands on the wrong fingers, and it becomes extremely time consuming for a teacher to check all eight fingers on each student in a classroom and also takes substantial time to sort out the rings on each student if they are put on wrong. The bands are easily dropped by children and storage and retrieval of bands are not efficiently manageable. Therefore, a need exists for a keyboard training system which is more suited toward younger children to properly teach them keyboard operation before they develop improper typing habits which are difficult or impossible to break.